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Milestones from the last 50 years of NZ TV

TVNZ has compiled a comprehensive timeline of significant and memorable events that have occured in and around the television industry in New Zealand over the past 50 years.

From the broadcast of the Wahine disaster footage in 1968, to the very first screening of Shortland Street in 1992, it’s all there.

Take a trip down memory lane below.

1930s

BBC in Britain broadcast the first television images in 1936

NBC began broadcasting in the United States in 1939.

1949

NZ Government formed departmental committee to study the new medium of television

1951

Experimental closed-circuit demonstration broadcasts began on the proviso that they did not include anything that could be classified as ‘entertainment’

1956

TV begins in Australia

1959

NZ Prime Minister Walter Nash declared that public broadcasts of TV could proceed. Television would be introduced as an entertainment medium

1960

The first official transmission of television began at 7.30 pm on the 1st of June from Shortland Street Studios in Auckland. (1st June)

AKTV2 broadcast for 3 hours but could only be received in Auckland.

The first night of programming included an episode of The Adventures of Robin Hood with the Howard Morrison Quartet performing live

Ian Watkins became the first TV presenter when he interviewed English ballerina, Beryl Grey.

Transmission increased from 2 to 4 nights a week in July

Alma Johnson became first female TV presenter in August

TV License Fee introduced and cost £4 per year, the equivalent of $159.25 in 2010.

The Bell 21” TV Consolette sold for £149.10 (Equivalent cost in 2010 of $5,935)

1961

Advertising introduced on TV to off-set costs. Ads could only play Tuesday – Thursday and Saturday (April).

Christchurch TV channel CHTV3 began broadcasting (1st of June)

Wellington TV channel WNTV1 began broadcasting (1st of July)

1962

Daily news bulletins began (March)

NZ Broadcasting Corporation established by legislation that puts broadcasting in public control. (April)

NZBC assumes responsibility for 35 radio stations and 4 TV stations around the country.

Dunedin TV channel DNTV2 began broadcasting (July)

All 4 TV stations were allowed to broadcast 35 hours a week (Oct)

1963

The Queen opened NZ Parliament and the event was broadcast live from Wellington.

The Wellington channel produces the first television play called All Earth to Love

TV was used by politicians in the lead up to the November General Election. Two hours of pre-recorded speeches were broadcast on the 4 regional television stations.

But most politicians appeared stiff and uncomfortable in front of the camera, and the telecasts were described as ‘animated waxworks’

The first programme named Close Up debuts with interviewer Ian Johnstone

1964

Coronation Street first screens (May)

Increasing pressure for extended coverage prompts NZBC to license community groups so they could build and operate their own TV translators to receive, boost and re-transmit the signal to their local areas

Peter Snell won two gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics. The games spark a boom in sales of TVs. (Oct)

NZBC establishes a Maori programme section

275,000 TV license holders in NZ. (Nov)

Annual income from radio and TV licenses exceeds £5,000,000, more than £250,000 being paid in taxation. (Equivalent collection today of $175 million)

1965

License Fee data shows nearly 50% of households have TVs.

305,410 licensed sets across NZ, 1/3 of them in Auckland. (Feb)

The 4 stations broadcast seven nights a week – a total of 50 hours

1966

Country Calendar screens for the first time (March).

C’mon debuts, filmed in front of a live audience and hosted by Peter Sinclair (Nov).

Avalon opens in April, the Lower Hutt television centre is the biggest and most technically advanced facility in the country. It cost $10 million to build the equivalent of $160 million in 2009.

Close to Home debuts (May)

Jennie Goodwin becomes first woman in the Commonwealth to anchor a prime time network news programme

TV Two begins broadcasting in November and airs first Telethon a week later

First telethon raises $593,878 for St John Ambulance

1976

The newly elected National Government decides to merge all broadcasting services, including radio back into one corporation a year after it was split. The new model is called BCNZ.

Radio with Pictures debuts in September and runs for 10 years – hosts include Barry Jenkins, Karyn Hay, Phil O’Brien and Dick Driver

Telethon ’76 raised $1.6 million for the Child Health Foundation

Ian Johnstone becomes the first NZ television reporter to visit South Africa and interviewed Desmond Tutu, journalist Donald Woods and Prime Minister John Vorster. South Africa – the Black Future won Johnstone a Feltex Award.

Main news anchor Dougal Stevenson resigns electing to stay in Wellington instead of moving to Auckland.

Trial starts of News in Maori

Angela d’Audney presents Kaleidoscope

More than 100 documentaries are completed in 1980 and the bulk screen on programmes ‘Contact’ and ‘Look Out’

Island of Strange Noises wins a silver prize at the New York Film Festival – part of the Natural History film series The Wild South

Radio with Pictures moves to TV One with new frontman Phil O’Brien

Miss NZ/Miss Universe debuts in 1980 and runs for 8 years

1981

Mark Sainsbury starts work as a researcher for current affairs show, Close Up (the first current affairs show with that name)

Nine films are screened in one week in a NZ feature film festival

What Now debuts and still screens on TV2. It has had a long roll-call of presenters including Steve Parr, Danny Watson, Simon Barnett, Jason Gunn, Michelle A’Court, Tamati Coffey and Antonia Prebble.

Telethon ‘81 raises $5 million for the International Year of Disabled Persons

1982

Beauty and The Beast does its 1500th episode in front of a live audience in the James Hay Theatre, Christchurch

Private TV makes a brief foray into the market, when in June Northern TV (owned by a consortium of newspapers led by the NZ Herald) went to air with a one hour magazine style programme called ‘Good Morning’. It survived for one year.

1983

Whai Ngata and Derek Fox set up Te Karere, the first Māori news programme (Feb). It is still broadcast today on TV ONE at 4pm and repeated on TVNZ 7.

Close To Home comes to an end after 8 years of almost continuous programming

Telethon ‘83 raises $4.5 million in aid of the NZ Family Trust

1984

Gallipoli screens, an historical documentary about NZ’s involvement in the WWI campaign

Malcolm Hall produces a series that features kiwis doing unconventional things, called The Pacemakers

Kevin Milne joins Fair Go as a reporter

Karyn Hay began presenting Radio with Pictures and copped a lot of flak for her kiwi accent.

1985

NZ television celebrates 25 years on-air.

Research shows 7out of the 10 most popular programmes of 1984 were locally made shows including the 6.30 News, McPhail & Gadsby, Miss NZ, Decision ’84, the rugby tests against Australia and the Olympics.

TVNZ HQ moved from Wellington to Auckland

1986

State-Owned Enterprises Act requires SOEs to be run as commercial businesses

Judy Bailey and Neil Billington co-present revamped 6pm Network News

Modelling competition, Revlon Face of the 80s debuts

1987

TVNZ host broadcaster for inaugural Rugby World Cup

Gloss debuts

Paul Henry debuts on NZ television as host of the game show, Every Second Counts. It runs until 1989.

Dougal Stevenson presents the Krypton Factor, a game show where contestants compete against each other in a variety of physical and mental challenges

1988

TVNZ braced itself for the introduction of TV3 by securing rights to many popular overseas programmes, cancelling Channel 2 news to concentrate news resources on Channel One and locking-in sporting rights.

TVNZ won the rights to the 1992 Olympics.

ONE News moves to 6pm from 6:30pm

Jim Hickey begins presenting weather on TVNZ after many small acting parts in Gloss, Mortimer’s Patch and time working on Country Calendar.

1989

Paul Holmes hits the screen with Holmes following the 6pm news (April).

Advertising allowed to run 24/7 except for Sunday mornings and public holidays.

Bernadine Oliver-Kerby gets her first job in television presenting youth show, ‘Life in the Fridge’

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About the author

Experimental closed-circuit demonstration broadcasts began on the proviso that they did not include anything that could be classified as ‘entertainment’

Well, no change in TV since then is there.

bobscoffee

1999

TVNZ sells a number of assets that were not essential to core business including shareholding in Sky TV.

Stupidest decision made?

cameragod

Oh paying for Julian Mounter to bring his yacht over from the UK and then allowing him to move TVNZ HQ from Wellington to Auckland just because he preferred the yachting scene up there ranks as fairly stupid.

aaronimpact

1986

Modelling competition, Revlon Face of the 80s debuts

I would like to know a little more about this and any famous models that entered it.

D-i-r

There is no mention of Bill Southgate about the first Tv frontman TV one ever had??

Blair

This timeline seems very biased towards TVNZ. The year Wheel of Fortune started was actually 1991 and while TVNZ starting broadcasting 1 hour of news in 1995 it is worth noting TV3 started their 1 hour of news 4 years earlier in 1991.